1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roof molding-free body structure on the automobile roof side.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a roof panel 51 of an automobile and a side body panel 52a of a roof side rail 52 as shown in FIG. 6 are joined to each other by spot welding in a state in which an outside edge portion and an inside edge portion are lapped on each other. Therefore, welding traces of spot welds W are produced on the outside surface of the roof panel 51, which undesirably impairs the appearance. To solve this problem, a resin part called a molding 53 is mounted to the joint portion to conceal the welding traces.
Since body color varies widely according to vehicle type etc., if the molding 53 used is of one color of black, the appearance quality may be degraded depending on the body color. On the other hand, if the molding 53 is painted body color, the production cost increases. In addition, the molding 53 sometimes becomes uneven or is not mounted straight.
In such a situation, a roof molding-free body structure has conventionally been employed in which on the automobile roof side, no molding is provided in a joint portion between a roof panel and a roof side rail (refer to Patent Document 1, for example). For this roof molding-free body structure, an inclined portion extending upward on the outside in the vehicle width direction is formed in the upper part of a longitudinal wall portion of side body panel in the roof side rail, an inclined portion extending downward on the inside of vehicle body is formed in the outside edge portion in the vehicle width direction of the roof panel, and the inclined portion of side body panel and the inclined portion of roof panel are welded in a lapped state.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2000-247259
However, for the above-described roof molding-free body structure, since the side body panel of roof side rail and the inclined portion of roof panel are used as a joint portion, it is especially difficult to align the inclined portions vertically, and therefore much time is required for the assembling work of roof side, which makes it difficult to increase productivity. Also, for the conventional roof molding-free body structure, when the distance between the right and left roof side rails varies, a gap or inclination occurs in the joint portion, which degrades the appearance quality. Moreover, since a sealer material is applied in the upper part of the joint portion, there arises a problem of increased cost.